Cheerleading For America

We got home a few minutes ago from the Freedom Club’s annual dinner. The Freedom Club is an organization of Minnesota businesspeople that supports conservative candidates and causes. Over the years, it has had a considerable influence on Minnesota politics. Most recently, the club has run this ad on statewide television. There is evidence that the ad has had a perceptible impact on public attitudes toward the current budget battle between our Democratic Governor and our Republican legislature:

The dinner was a great event, as always. We have had a succession of terrific speakers: Michelle Malkin, Mark Steyn, Amity Shlaes, Jonah Goldberg, Karl Rove, and more whose names I am forgetting at the moment. This year’s speaker was Michael Reagan. I didn’t know what to expect, not having heard him on the radio and having seen him only occasionally on television, but he was excellent. His speech was an inspirational tribute to his father, whom Michael described as a cheerleader for America as well as a man of religious conviction and a shrewd politician and negotiator. As one would expect, it was full of family anecdotes that shed light on President Reagan’s character.
More than that, Michael Reagan’s speech was a tribute to America as the world’s beacon of freedom. His closing message was a good one: conservatives shouldn’t fixate on the past or spend their time searching for the next Ronald Reagan. The strength of the conservative movement is in the grass roots; Reagan was the original tea partier. The battle to preserve liberty for the next generation has been joined, and every conservative is needed on the front lines.
UPDATE: This photo of me, my wife Loree and Michael Reagan was taken last night. Loree is the one in the middle: